Traders Purchase High Volume of Put Options on Xerox (NASDAQ:XRX)

Xerox Holdings Co. (NASDAQ:XRX) was the target of unusually large options trading on Wednesday. Traders bought 1,689 put options on the company. This represents an increase of 1,369% compared to the typical daily volume of 115 put options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Versor Investments LP acquired a new stake in shares of Xerox in the 4th quarter valued at $190,000. First Eagle Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in Xerox by 89.4% during the 4th quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 2,182,500 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $5,173,000 after purchasing an additional 1,030,000 shares during the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its position in Xerox by 104.5% in the fourth quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 1,585,215 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,900,000 after buying an additional 809,861 shares in the last quarter. Levin Capital Strategies L.P. acquired a new position in Xerox in the fourth quarter valued at about $36,000. Finally, Wealthfront Advisers LLC bought a new stake in Xerox during the fourth quarter worth about $53,000. 85.36% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Xerox Stock Up 5.5%

Shares of XRX stock opened at $2.29 on Thursday. Xerox has a one year low of $2.03 and a one year high of $8.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.94, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $2.51 and a 200 day moving average price of $3.31. The stock has a market cap of $293.21 million, a P/E ratio of -0.28 and a beta of 1.72.

Xerox’s stock is scheduled to split on Monday, February 9th. The 3-2 split was recently announced. The newly minted shares will be distributed to shareholders after the market closes on Sunday, February 8th.

Xerox (NASDAQ:XRX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 29th. The information technology services provider reported ($0.10) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.15 by ($0.25). The business had revenue of $2.03 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.08 billion. Xerox had a negative return on equity of 8.26% and a negative net margin of 14.65%.Xerox’s revenue was up 25.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.36 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Xerox will post 1.07 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the company. Citigroup reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $2.50 price target (down from $3.50) on shares of Xerox in a report on Friday, January 30th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Xerox from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday. Finally, Weiss Ratings started coverage on shares of Xerox in a report on Wednesday, January 28th. They issued a “sell (d-)” rating for the company. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $2.50.

About Xerox

Xerox Holdings Corporation (NYSE: XRX) is a global provider of document management technology and services. The company designs and manufactures a broad range of multifunction printers, production printers, digital presses and related consumables. In addition to its hardware offerings, Xerox delivers software and workflow automation solutions, managed print services and cloud-based document platforms that help organizations optimize their information-intensive processes.

Founded in 1906 as The Haloid Photographic Company, Xerox pioneered xerographic imaging in the late 1940s, launching the first plain-paper copier in 1959.